James Beckwith, former chief operating officer and acting president of Southern Vermont College in Bennington, is seen in this Feb. 7, 2012, photo. / Peter Crabtree/Bennington Banner

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Free Press Staff Writer

A criminal probe into alleged financial misconduct by James E. Beckwith, a former chief financial officer at Southern Vermont College, will proceed despite Beckwith’s death by an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, a federal prosecutor says.

“We will proceed with our review of all financial transactions involving Mr. Beckwith,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Waples said Friday. “We’ve just begun to turn over stones in this case.”

Beckwith, 58, of South Londonderry was found dead about 250 feet outside his home Wednesday night by the Vermont State Police.

Sgt. Richard Holden, a Vermont State Police detective, said Friday that troopers went to the home after receiving a 911 call from Beckwith’s wife expressing concern about her husband’s safety.

Beckwith’s death came five hours after the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Burlington filed a civil forfeiture complaint in federal court alleging that Beckwith had diverted $440,000 of college money into a Merrill Lynch account that he controlled, and then had used some of the money to pay off the mortgage on the home and a home equity loan.

The house sits on 10.1 acres, and the property is listed on the town’s Grand List as having a value of $840,000.

Waples declined to discuss how the government would proceed with the civil forfeiture action, which could result in the seizure of the home. He said the Justice Department as a rule does not evict people in such circumstances if that can be avoided.

Beckwith served as acting president at Southern Vermont College in 2012 while its permanent president, Karen Gross, was on a leave of absence while service as a senior policy adviser for the federal Education Department in Washington.

Gross returned to the 555-student campus in January. Beckwith resigned his post Feb. 3 after an attorney for the college questioned him about “suspicious financial transactions” involving Beckwith that turned up in a routine audit for fiscal year 2012, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit filed with the court.

Officials said they later discovered that Beckwith had submitted fabricated documents to college officials from October 2012 to January 2013 in order to obtain three checks. The checks, for $440,000, then were deposited in Beckwith’s Merrill Lynch account, the affidavit stated.

The balances on the mortgage and the home equity loans both were paid off during the same period, the affidavit stated.